Sardoman

Recipes 

Here's another classic "I stuck my whole arm into my cooled wort before pitching the yeast" story.

First time using new brew kettle with a ball lock spigot at the bottom. Brewed as usual, whole hops for bittering, additions of chocolate and spices. With this setup, the last gallon or two requires a siphon from the dip tube to remove, so I have the BK up on the kitchen counter, tubing going from the spigot into the fermentor bucket and start the flow. Takes no time at all for hops and chocolate to stop the flow. I took off my shirt, sprayed my arm and a hop bag down with star san and held the hop bag over the dip tube at the bottom of the BK, sweeping it with my fingers every time something got sucked up against it.

It worked. The beer didn't get contaminated and it tastes great!

Lesson: I now use hop bags in the boil for anything other than pellet hops and small ground spices.

Marlowefire

Recipes 

I set the temp controller on my Johnson to 66 but forgot to unplug the hair dryer I was using to heat my chest freezer. It got to 131F when I went back to pitch the yeast. The heat caused a vacuum/melted the tops of my better bottles in. I siphoned off the one that had been fermenting for a week into the keg (assuming most of the yeast were dead).

No plastic taste or anything. My caribou slobber is delicious. I'm now going to use these BB for cider.

Jayhem

Recipes 

I did not know I needed to aerate my wort prior to pitching the yeast, I actually siphoned the beer from kettle to fermenter and it still fermented out just fine.

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Next up: Caramel Amber Ale (Chinook)
Primary #1 + 2: Red Zombie IPA
Bottle Conditioning: Centennial Blonde Summer Ale, Shmuck's Belgian Dubbel, Dry Irish Stout
Drinking: Honeybee American Wheat Ale

frazier

Recipes 

My digital thermometer went a little haywire, so when I thought I was mashing at ~152, it was really about 160* F. I didn't realize the problem until four weeks later, when the FG on this mother-of-all-stuck fermentations was 1.032. I bottled it anyway, and while I don't think it's my best effort, it's not bad and everyone else loves it. So I'm not going to argue with them!

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"Anything worth doing, is worth doing slowly." ~~ Mae West

BrewersKaramazov

Recipes 

I had the output hose come off my immersion cooler, spraying water into my cooling wort. Pulled the coil out of the wort and reattached the hose while balancing the coil on the edge of my brewpot. Still turned out great

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Beer makes me better looking.

brewerwannabe

Recipes 

Thanks guys. You made me feel a ton better. My very first brew is fermenting (Yay, Mr. Beer!), but I have been worried because: A) I had accidentally dropped the yeast packet into the batch and had to fish it out and B) I was worried a bit that the temp wasn't exact enough when I added the yeast. Hopefully it will turn out great...

wailingguitar

Recipes 

I have had some crazy stuff happen in pubs and micros I have worked... very few problems at home though.... However;

I was making an Oktoberfest, second AG brew I had done in my current locale with new mlt I had made, etc. Was brewing on an electric stove, something distracted me and there was a massive boilover. Oh fug! So much wort flooding the stove top. Must not lose all that wort! Put on some gloves, grabbed a clean kitchen towel, started sopping and wringing.. sopping and wringing... the top was fairly clean, but there was probably a little bacon grease and god knows what... Well, I recovered the majority of it, nailed my gravity. My effort was rewarded, beautiful marzen... perfect... mmmm! I think that beer is the best I have ever made at home!

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"Why did you.... what was the point of... how drunk were you when you decided this was a good idea?" - DMartin

tgmartin000

Recipes 

I bottled a batch of mighty arrow using old mighty arrow bottles (new Belgium ).that I bought. The catch - I left all the labels on the old bottles. Just threw them in a bucket with Sanitizer. Labels, glue, everything. Pulled them out and filled them! I dont know what I was thinking! Beer turned out decent.

bleme

Recipes 

You should add bacon grease to your next batch to see if that is the secret :-)

bovinejony

Recipes 

Was testing the gravity of my wort about a week into primary fermentation, using a bucket with a spigot, and the seal around the spigot began leaking. The only way to tighten was from the inside. It was leaking quickly so I just took the spray bottle of week old star san, soaked my arm, and reached into the bucket and tightened the seal.

Was my best batch yet (english version of SNCA).